Can Peace Be Imposed?

Can we impose peace via any religion or man made ideology’s?

May all beings everywhere plagued with sufferings of body and mind quickly be freed from their illnesses. May those frightened cease to be afraid, and may those bound be free. May the powerless find power, and may people think of befriending one another. May those who find themselves in trackless, fearful wilderness– the children, the aged, the unprotected– be guarded by beneficent celestial’s, and may they swiftly attain the wisdom of Liberation or Buddhahood.

Firstly, who are we?

We call ourselves human beings and we see ourselves as the dominant species in this environment. We have demonstrated the ability to dominate life on this planet by making everything bend to our will or just exterminating life by accident or deliberation.

We have created a great many ideologies that we call as socialism, communism, liberalism, neoliberalism, Catholicism, Islam and many others. In a sense we have created many tribes with conflicting values and beliefs, and none of these beliefs can be proved as true or having long term value.

We claim that we value life and yet we treat each other appallingly. We have created a global class structure whereby the majority are slaves to the few. That minority who rule the world have gained their position through inheritance, good fortune or through various forms of conquest.

All conquest brings wealth and possessions at the expense of those who created the wealth and possessions. So you see, we have a terribly unjust world. Conversely if we look at the animal species, they don’t have the choice that we have, they kill and act to ensure their survival, but at other times they are remarkably peaceful.

On the other hand modern humans are living in a world with an abundance of food, individuals who are not hungry yet have become consumers of everything they can get their hands on and are ripping the planet apart for new wealth and the temporary sense of happiness it brings, but at the same time they are creating an irreconcilable suffering and the majority of the population.

But it gets even worse because those people who sit atop the heap of human civilisation have developed the ability to propagandise, to control not only language and aspects of knowledge, but they use the media to stupefying, to confuse and otherwise control the majority population who are in fact indentured slaves unless of course they are debt free.

This is our unfortunate situation and for the world to continue the way it is going, we need several more planets from which to gain the raw materials required to maintain a consumer society. But there is another insidious side to this game because the shape consumerism and perceived needs within sectors of society, wars are conducted and since the advent of money, there have been very few occasions that the world has known peace.

Because of this it has been believed that one must be stronger than one’s neighbour which led to the arms race. Our ancient ancestors relied on primitive weapons to kill animals and supplement their diet, but those weapons over time became much more sophisticated and today we have enough nuclear devices to destroy the surface life on this planet many times over.

So the powers that be, those who rule over the world have the resources and sufficient faithful followers that they can influence the world for their pleasure which generally comes down to greater profits and a behavioural concept that flows down to the poorest of the poor who generally end up in jail because they imitated the actions of those on the top of the heap, their only misfortune was being caught.

What chance of freedom?

When we look at the world’s situation we can see that we are governed by bloody-minded tyrants whose only interest is in the welfare of themselves and perhaps their nearest and dearest. It seems probable that these families have been ruling the roost for several thousand years and they keep each other in line through games of strategy and brute force using the middle and working classes as well as today’s banking system as mechanisms or pieces on their chess boards.

Throughout history, tyrants have been overthrown and yet new tyrants have always re-emerged. In terms of governance, some strongmen like the late Col Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein although they were portrayed as monsters to the world maintained peaceful and progressive society’s.

There is only one difference between the world of 40 years ago and now, and that’s communication. Yet communication has its own drawback because we are awash in a world of misinformation and yet while we live under the veil or the illusion of democracy, we still have a slim chance to create a peaceful world.

This chance is slim because we’re all divided against each other, we say we all want peace and happiness and yet we are all insisting that we conform to the peace and happiness as described by someone else. It’s an old adage that the first step to peace is for oneself to become peaceful. Most people have difficulty with this because peace is a concept that they think they have to earn or acquire but it is a state of becoming.

The only way to become peaceful is to meditate and meditation is simply deep relaxation which helps to generate an awareness of oneself as a spiritual being rather than just another cog in the wheel, or a consumer needing to be satisfied, or a worker desperate to pay the bills. Regardless of one’s social or financial standing, everyone has the ability to sit down, to relax and direct their attention inwards or is said that we can literally plant our own gardens and decorate our own souls.

It is only by doing this that we acquire a peace of mind and it is only from this perspective that it is possible to recognise the actual state of the world and one’s position.

From that position of inner peace, a certain amount of external peace will radiate from you and you can encourage others to follow the same path and a degree of equanimity exudes. Then there are obvious steps to create a degree of physical freedom and this is by forming collectives and using the democratic process to become debt free and independent of mainstream economic and social systems. There will still be work to be done and taxes to pay because peace does not mean stepping out of this physical life.

By creating small societies on the fringe of the mainstream, more and more people will be able to find happiness and meaning in life. This independence disempowers the tyrants on top and by engaging in the democratic process, politicians who are more sympathetic to achieving a peaceful society can be elected.

This is the only path to peace and to be sure some tyrants will take offence and crush some communities, but there may come a time when sufficient people are awakened that those tyrants who cause so much suffering will want to know peace in their own hearts so badly, they will cast aside their own fears and anxieties that keep them trapped in the prison of their own suffering.

Many experts agree that this planet has enough resources to sustain more than 9 billion people, but if we don’t do anything, all humanity will go through yet another mass extinction and for what? The temporary pleasure of some lonely soul living in isolation in an ivory tower somewhere?

Real freedom is a state of mind that we can all achieve and the first step begins right now. So peace cannot be imposed, it’s something organic that needs to be grown.